mitsukuni

Mine seem to be only quarrelsome amongst themselves... I bought them as dithers for my discus tank, because I always liked them, and thought they'd be shown to their advantage with all that quality food thrown in for the discus. They've never bothered the discus, or the pair of rams... [wildguesses]Any chance that there was some change in the tank's chemistry, something in the source water last time you did a WC, an environmental contaminant that made it into the tank, dead fish behind a rock somewhere... I'm sure you've thought about all these possibilities already. [/wildguesses] Just as an aside, my tank is at a constant 85* for its expensive inhabitants, but the emperors don't seem to mind the sauna-like temps. I would think that at your 76* they'd have more available oxygen, etc...

So I'm still sorting what to put where, but I know I want to set up a geo tank (or two?). I'll use the common store names, since the nomenclature seems to be still in a state of flux... I'd like to keep some combination of Jurupari, Daemon, Surinamensis, Steindachneri (redhump), Heckeli (thread-finned acara), or even Balzani. Am I asking for trouble to keep any combination of these in one largish tank? How about inter-compatibility? If I had a trio of redhumps for example (aiming for 2f and a m) would there be trouble with agression? I realize in asking this, that fish are individuals, and that personalities can sweep away generalizations, but I'm just wondering if anyone has had any experience with keeping some combination of these in their own tank, and what the outcome was? I've kept G.Surinamensis in the past, and just picked up a little juvie on the weekend, so I've gotten a modest start. Haven't got the 77 going yet (he's in a 55 at the moment), but it soon will be their home for the next couple of years, till they get larger, and get even bigger quarters (hopefully a 180ish)... Ideas/opinions welcome! Phil

That's too bad. :shock: As JV said, Emperors can be territorial. I have 4 males and 5 females, and they do their share of nitpicking back and forth... but I'd be surprised if the agression was enough to kill... esp that fast. One thing you can check is the date on your reagents. I found out the hard way that expired test kit reagents show up as 0ppm. A new test kit soon showed me what was going on, but too late for the new fish I had introduced the day before. Course this wouldn't pinpoint the cause of spiking levels, if they were indeed up - but its a headsup nonetheless. None of the rest of the fish are showing any signs of stress?

So far we have a bristlenose, a clown pekoltia, two LARGE plecostomus, and a gold nugget. But more to come...

Too bad it worked out that way today bud... the LFS was nice in letting you return it too, eh? My geo went into my tank, and after a few minutes of rapid gill action, it settled in and started sifting the sand for the bloodworms I'd thrown in to distract the other fish. My relatively new tank only has two other inhabitants currently: a 4yo Severum, and a little bitty Green Terror. Despite his diminuitive size, the GT still hassled the geo somewhat... Perhaps your geo, going into a well-seasoned tank, had a little more trouble acclimatizing to the dissolved organics? Coupled with the Paradise needing an outlet for agression, maybe the poor geo just couldn't handle the stress... I find that first five or ten minutes when a new fish first goes in and the rest are sizing it up is as stressful for the keeper as it is for the fish! As far as the API test kit, you bought it when I bought my new one, right? So there should be no expired reagents... and you've got a good sized cannister filter on there... At least your wifey got a new fish for her little community tank when you went back, right? So it wasn't a total loss...

I won't be putting all those in the 77... just casting for ideas. I haved the severum and the GT, the others are all theoretical at this point... Discus wouldn't be staying in the 33 long term, but I've currently got a couple of juvies in the 60 that get bullied around feeding time, so maybe I'll use the 33 to grow them out a bit - we'll see... thanks for the feedback.

So after my buddy dropped off a 77 the other night, and I picked up a 33 at the auction, and dusted off an old 27 that I had, I find myself with an abundance of empty tanks, which means I can finally set up some of the combinations I've always wanted to try... Here are some combinations I'm thinking of: 77: green severum, gold severum, green terror, some pimelodids, maybe a pinktail chalceus... Always liked geophagus surinamensis, and geophagus jurupari. Wonder if they would go with this tank combo? Or are they too shy? What about acaricthys heckeli (thread-finned acara)? 55: some angels, some festivums, maybe a school of hatchets 33: maybe some more small africans, or some dwarf SA's? Not sure on this one yet. Maybe more discus? :shifty: Opinions? Suggestions? Phil

A buddy of mine dug it out of his garage and brought it over: 48x18x21. Looks like the old Severum is finally gonna get a nice big home... and some new buddies! :thumbs: Guess I didn't need to buy that 33 at the auction last weekend, eh? Oopsie....never can have too many, right? Phil

I dunno what the L-number was, but here's a pic of the little gaffer:

:heart: :heart: :heart: Gold nugget pleco! Gorgeous! The little gem went in with the discus, and as we sat there watching the tank, it occurred to me that a generator is quickly becoming a necessary home emergency item...

After being inspired by our friend Sam Chicklets, I decided I'd try sand as a substrate. In all the tanks I've had over the years, I'd never done sand.... This tank was a recent setup after I scored a nice deal on a 55 on Calgary Used. We simply transferred the fish and filter from the 33 and added a second HOB (AC200). This tank came with a PILE of large rocks, so we basically just spread them across the bottom, drained the 33 into the 55, topped it up, and called it good. That was a few weeks ago. We figured it was time to start doing something with it today: My ultimate goal for this tank will be to house some of the shyer geophagines, some angels, and some festivums, along with a complement of catfish, and maybe hatchets as dithers. But until I come up with a 90 for the basement to put my Severum and his buddies in, this tank will have to house him and his juvie green terror friend, along with a large pleco, a clown pekoltia, and maybe some others for the short term... In any event I wanted to put sand in. First trip to Totem: waffled over traction sand versus playsand, and came home with the former. After washing 1/3 of the bag for an hour and still running cloudy, and not really liking the grain size or the color, I put my sidewalk sand outside for future winter use, returned to Totem and got the kids playsand. Brought it home, rinsed it thoroughly (took about 20 min's) and then added it to the tank. Followed up with a large partial W/C, and I'm now sitting next to it as I type this, watching the the Sev poke his nose around in it. Next step will probably be some large pieces of driftwood (currently only has one smallish piece in there). After it clears better, I'll post a pic of the progress. :thumbs: Phil

Ditto on the Cascade. I'm running the 1000, and it is quiet, easy to maintain, and has lots of room for media. My wife gave it to me for Christmas, after she found it at Pisces a few years back for $100!! I also have a fluval 404, but haven't set it up yet. I'm also running a Magnum HOT canister on my red-eared slider tank. Great mechanical/chemical filtration, but not great for biological - the container is just not big enough. I also once had a Magnum 350, but I wouldn't get another. Clips to hold down the lid were flimsy, impeller was in the bottom of the sump so if you put it in storage wihthout invertin it you could count on a rusty impeller assembly... AC's? No aquarist is complete without a few of these - great for temporary setups, quarantine tanks, moving setups around, etc.

Well said Mikey. Angel, may your black marbled sides continue to flouresce in fishy heaven for all time...

:welcome: Mike! Good to see you made it here. Mike is too modest to tell you guys, but he is a fisheries biologist, so his take on things aquatic has some education and experience behind it. Ssshhhhh...

They're at it again: third clutch of eggs, same place this time: on the broad leaf of an Amazon sword. Both are taking turns defending the corner, and driving any stray emperors or discus out of the nursery... wonder what would happen if I cut the leaf off and put it in a small tank by itself...? Hmmmm.... Phil

Yeah...so... I got two more of those flattened fishies.... This time I got two 3" blue diamond discus. Beautiful. Had them a week now and they are very active, not as shy as the turqs, and love their bloodworms. That makes six. That may do it for this tank, though Christian was showing me some lovely plecos today, and I'm pretty sure that one or more are going to end up coming home with me eventually. And I still have an obsession with Tangerine Dreams. Praps I'll just have to set up another tank for discus? :heart: Be aware that if you want a successful planted tank with adequate light, your discus may be shy for a bit till they get used to the increased light levels in your tank... that's what I've found anyways, though now that I have a half dozen they're not as flighty... (take anything I say with a tsp of stress coat - I've only been a discus keeper for 2 months... )

Here's a shot of four of my pals, having a DISCUSsion about the java moss...

Addiction for sure... I have been wanting to keep them for as long as I've been in the hobby (since I was 15 - OMG, thats 21 years! Ahhh... I digress...),. I finally have a tank setup for them, which I've detailed in my "living room discus tank" in the cichlid section along with a pic, which I'll repost here... I have two red turqs, two blue turqs, and two blue diamonds. Their personalities are quite quirky compared to the South American cichlids I'm used to keeping. Every night they do what my wife calls Discus synchronized swimming, where they swim in a line around the tank, one after the other. Hilarious! You will love em! Phil

My living room showtank (if I could be so vain) is coming along nicely, and I'm *almost* done stocking it... Here's my setup: -60 gallon tall (48x12x24): 2 heaters for an almost constant 29.7*, timer operated airstone that runs when lights out/twin T5's run daytime, PennPlax Cascade 1000 canister, CO2 injection via yeast reactor... -12 largish Amazon swords, couple of patches of Java moss, and three large pieces of driftwood. -9 Emperor tetras, 2 Rams (m&f, and have already laid eggs twice), 1 bristlenose, 2-2" blue turqs, 2-3" red turqs, and 2-3" blue-diamonds. This is where I intended to stop, let the Discus grow out, enjoy the tank. But I've fallen for the Tangerine Discus. I've almost got myself convinced that 2 more discus won't hurt anybody.... :& I am doing 2 w/c's per week of about 40-50% each... What do you all think? Just two more? Those Tangerines are so nice... (pic of current setup attached: sorry about the clarity - bristles took the night off, and so you're seeing a little algae on the front) Phil

I've gotten two red turqs from Riverfront and two blue turqs from Gold. All seem to be healthy, nice coloration, etc. And both were reasonably priced. I like to support local when I can... I just need two more to round out my 60 showtank... not sure where I'll get em from yet... But agreed, its nice to be able to pick out your fish, watch em eat, swim, etc and then say "I want THAT one". :thumbs:

Well, the fish are still very young, and the eggs have disappeared. This early in the game I'm not going to remove them to a separate tank yet - I think I'll wait till the couple gets a little more mature... Their first clutch was on the substrate, but this second one was on a leaf. Guess the driftwood is next?

I noticed that the two rams (still quite small) were driving everyone away from one corner today. Looked a little closer, and saw that they were guarding a clutch of eggs, laid on an amazon sword plant that was leaned back on a diagonal. They are taking turns defending them... I've only had these fish since mid-Jan, and they are still pretty small, so I'm not expecting fry anytime soon, but the fact that they're "gettin' busy" is pretty cool! :thumbs: The Discus don't agree with me, however - they can't believe the sheer audacity of these little yellow intruders driving them away from the side of their kingdom!

Wow! Thanks all! I feel all warm and fuzzy! Oh wait, its just water leaking out of my python hose and running up my arm... Hoping to make the CAS auction... what kinds of things are sold there? Mostly livestock, or is there lots of drygoods too? Thanks again for the warm welcome. Hopefully I can contribute someday - I feel like a newbie, with these neurotic discus swimming around - I told my wife they were very cat-like, and I got a bit of a "look"... you know the one... eyes start to roll a little as she turns away...

How did I live in AB the last six years without knowing about this forum? In any event, great to see so many enthusiasts around! I've been keeping SA cichlids on and off for the last 15 years or so, but we recently built a house, and I thought it was time to finally get my dream fish. So I just got two red turq discus, and am planning on four more to complete my 60gallon... Uh oh - gotta run! Water changes are calling...